Mourners crowd funeral for slain S.F. bicyclist

Jim Herron Zamora, OF THE EXAMINER STAFF

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, August 31, 1995

1995-08-31 04:00:00 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- In an outpouring of grief, more than 850 mourners, including Mayor Jordan and Deputy Police Chief Diarmuid Philpott, attended the funeral of a Sunset District man killed last week after a traffic altercation.

At an altar decorated with Irish and American flags, friends and family of Patrick Hourican paid a final tribute Wednesday to the 32-year-old plasterer.

"He did more in 32 years than most people do in a lifetime," said his mother, Dorothy Hourican. "He touched our lives in such a way that will never be forgotten."

The foyer of the church was decorated with two large photo collages of Hourican showing him in a variety of poses wearing suits, T-shirts, tuxedos and swimming trunks. The common thread to the pictures was that he was always in the center of things, flashing his big smile.

The mourners at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in the Richmond District included many San Francisco police officers and firefighters - all dressed in civilian garb.

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Many mourners were Irish Americans who, like Hourican, work in the construction business. Several members and officials from the building trades unions also attended, including John Moylan, former head of plasters union and a member of the Golden Gate Bridge District commission.

Others, like Philpott, know the Hourican family. Dorothy Hourican works as a bank fraud investigator and has frequently assisted police investigations.

"He was a great kid," Philpott said. "He was just the life of any party he went to. . . . This is something that has shocked a lot of people because of the senselessness."

Hourican, a lifelong San Francisco resident, was killed Aug. 16 after a confrontation with another man that police say stemmed from a minor traffic incident.

Louis Waldron, 22, of Larkspur has been arrested and charged with murder. The City's Irish community has mobilized to ask prosecutors to charge two men who were with the alleged killer.

Dorothy Hourican drew frequent applause in a eulogy during which she said her son had made hundreds of friends in the Bay Area and during his world travels.

She described how he liked to play with his nieces and often talked about his love for kids.

"He looked forward to having a family of his own," but never had the chance, she said.